Windows 10 Start menu not working and empty taskbar with invisible icons

(PLEASE HELP) Hey everyone, i ran into a serious problem here. I got a Medion computer which had windows 8.1 preinstalled when it got purchased and i updated to Windows 10 a couple of months ago. everything was working completely fine until yesterday. I got called by my mom who also has an account on the computer and said that she couldn't open the start menu. I didn't know anything on how to fix that and i'm sure that she didn't download anything that affected the system the past days. I haven't downloaded any 3rd party program either recently. The weird thing is that i can hover over the invisible taskbar icons, (as seen in the screenshot) but i can't open them. Right-clicking the start menu works by the way and my explorer works flawless as well. It's just my taskbar and start menu. Tried restarting a couple of times, but still not working. What causes this problem? How do i fix it? Is it an Explorer issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here are the specs of my Medion computer if needed: (just exactly typed over what it said in Properties )

Attached Files:

Staff Member

I would first try restating in safe mode and see if both the start menu and taskbar work. If they do then my first thought is that you do have some type of malware causing a problem. If they still do not work you can try the following to reset the taskbar and start menu

For the taskbar you can try resetting it.

open regedit and delete HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband

Open explorer and delete the content of %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\taskbar

Afraid not. However, I I did notice just now the that the Security and Maintenance window is asking me to verify my identity on this PC. The Verify button is not working. Don't know if this is related.

Good question bochane. I would have checked but I was not able to run Windows Update, that was one of the things that would not load.

Anyway I just found a very big clue. This is weird. I created a local admin profile and everything worked fine. I moved my things over to it and deleted my old profile, looked great. Except that certain applications were now entirely gone, such as Spotify and Google Chrome. Anyhow I added my microsoft account to my new local profile, and BOOM the same problem returned!

Had to create another local admin profile, move my docs and things over to it, completely remove my profile that was tied to my microsoft account, and reinstall google chrome. I believe that so long as I do not log in with my Microsoft account it will work fine.